Michelle's mission adventures in Florida

Author: michelletryon

This week, like all the other weeks of my mission, has been amazing! I am still in shock that this is coming to a close. I remember hearing a Gordon B. Hinckley quote that said that at the very end of his life, he was finally beginning to understand the gospel fully. I feel the same way about missionary work. Now as I am ending this chapter, I finally have got the hang of things (or at least I think I do).

Our District

We set another baptismal date with a gentleman we met this week for the end of September. I also got to go on a tradeoff with Sister Smith in our area! Again haha. I am so thankful we have gotten to go on three tradeoffs together, she is amazing!

Me with Sister Smith, Sister Boyd, and Prince Chesley.

Sister Smith and me after our tradeoff.

Rather than ramble, I will list some things I have learned each transfer of my mission:

1). You can love someone so quickly and immediately. You can see a random stranger and just love them. You can live with someone 24/7 and just love them.

2). It doesn’t matter how inadequate you are if you can trust in God. He will make up for your faults if you will rely on Him.

3). Love has to be communicated. It is not enough to assume others know, but to express it often and sincerely.

4). Be where you are, when you are, and with the people you are with, and you will be happy.

5). When you love doing something, you can work harder than you ever have and have the best time of your life.

6). DRINK WATER. You will need to be closer to a bathroom more frequently but you will not die…

7). But if you need to use bathroom too frequently you might have other problems. Listen to your body and take care of yourself. And never forget how much your Heavenly Father loves you.

8). When you invest in a relationship and communicate, no matter how different you may be, you can love anyone.

9). “God will give you wings.” Two people can both be new at something and do well!

10). If you eat healthy it is easier to be happy.

11). Communication is the lubrication that makes the machine of life work better.

12). When you love someone, you express that love by the way they need it.

13). Listening is one of the best ways to express love. Also Sister Yingling is my favorite human.

I have been told that I will be giving a homecoming talk on August 20th. I would love it if y’all could come!

I am so thankful for my mission and how I have changed. I am thankful for the chance I have to continue to be a disciple of Jesus Christ when I go home! I love you all so much!

This week has been pretty amazing! We have been busy, and have seen so many miracles! We have had lots of funny experiences, especially following the Spirit! We have an especially unconventional one that makes me smile. I really wish we had a GoPro camera or a dash cam like cops do. Below is our crazy, Spirit led experience. Are you sitting down? Okay!

A few weeks ago we saw a young man crossing the sidewalk entrance to our apartment complex. We felt like we needed to talk to him, but the traffic was such that by the time we could cross and pull in, he was so far out of the way that our efforts to talk to him were not heard.

We were saddened, but resolved to talk to him the next time we saw him. No excuses. WELL, it happened. We were again pulling in to our complex, and again saw the same young man, this time walking across the other way. We whipped out a card to give to him, but again he was too far out of hearing. We were so sad. The Spirit told us that we NEEDED to talk to him! Well, as we were sadly pulling into our complex, we remembered one funny, sketchy thing about our complex. There is a fence running alongside it, and on part of the fence near our apartment, some people have pried the bars apart enough for people to squeeze right on through. Thinking of this space, and that the young man in question had been walking towards it, we hurried to a parking space. We jumped out of the car and ran to the fence. We saw him. Well, the Spirit said we needed to talk to him, and so we squeezed on through that hole! He was still a bit ahead, so we ran and caught up to him and talked to him.

Sister Beecher squeezing through the gap in our fence

Surprisingly, he was very undisturbed by our creepiness in literally chasing him down. I have never done that before on my mission, and I am not sure it will ever happen again! But now it is a funny story of the time we were those crazy missionaries. So pray for “D”!

I can squeeze through too! One of the funniest things is to see someone squeeze through as we are looking out the window. Too funny.

Anyway, this week has been great! We went on tradeoffs with the Oak Leaf Sisters. I served with Sister Beecher in Normandy, and it was so fun! She is the cutest individual! And I just love her!

Sister Beecher aka one of the cutest humans ever

I also went on a tradeoff with Sister Goeller in Middleburg and that was super fun as well! We took some fun pictures and she is just wonderful!

The ever cute Sister Goeller!

My spiritual thought his week is this: If you only had two weeks to serve the Lord with everything you had, what would you do? What would you be willing to give up to give every last ounce of energy? All of us are called to the work, whether full time or every day time. Make it worthwhile.

Remember who you are and whose you are. And always remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you!
Sister Tryon

When in Florida…. Get drenched in the minute it takes to put your groceries in the car. And the best part is, it isn’t raining the first thirty seconds.

This Sunday I celebrated my 21st birthday. Since yesterday was one of my best birthdays ever, I wanted to share my thoughts of miracles and funny things that happened this week. Here they are, in countdown form…

An Ode to Twenty One:

21). The number of times it took for me to actually hit and break open a piñata that our ward mission leader got for me. In my defense I was blindfolded with a tie and the Elders kept yanking it high up as I would swing (:

20). The number of times (at least) that I was “on the table” excited and rejoicing about Ode #12

19). The age I was two years ago when I first came out on my mission. How those two years have flown by!

18). The number of packets of skittles/starburst that were in my piñata.

17). The number of attempts it took for me to successfully use authentic chopsticks to eat authentic Cambodian Phō. Our Bishop spoiled us.

16). Probably an accurate count of the sweets I was given and ate in celebration of my birthday.

15). Probably an accurate guess of how many pounds I gained this week.

14). The number of dogs one of our members has. They flock to us.

13). The number of sweet sticky notes that the Timuquana Sisters left on our door on my birthday.

12). The number of non members who attended church with us this week. Six came because we invited them (and the Spirit compelled them), and six came because the members brought their non member families and friends. They just kept walking in and my jaw just kept dropping. It was a miracle! So invite your friends and family to come to church, okay? Okay (:

11). The number of showers I took this week to compensate for service in boiling heat. Cleanliness is next to godliness, after all, right?

10). The number of times a day that we pray (if not way more) to find those who are ready to receive the gospel.

9). The number of times I was so thankful to have my wonderful companion.

8). The number of times others sang Happy Birthday to me.

7). The number of days this week that we talked with everyone and were blessed beyond belief.

6). The number of times that Sister Wolfley and I scored together in ultimate frisbee with our team. Actually, I don’t know how many, but six seems decently accurate.

5). The number of times I cried for joy and because of the Spirit.

4). The number of new investigators that we found this week.

3). The number of balloons we found at our door for my birthday.

2). The number of days in a row that members took us to Golden Corrall to eat dinner, and the number of days in a row that members made me openly celebrate my birthday at restaurants, whether with a birthday crown or singing.

1). The number of investigators that accepted baptism and set a date for September 16th. He is a wonderful 21 year old named T, and he is so prepared for the gospel.

This was such a wonderful week! Thank you to everyone who was so kind and wished me a happy birthday! I love you all so much!

This week has been incredible! We keep seeing so many miracles that I just can’t explain! People talking to us, accepting baptism, hearts softening all over the place, and I just can’t explain it. But I sure am thankful for it. God is so good, and I am so thankful I get to represent my Savior and His love here.

I got to go on two tradeoffs this week, and they were so much fun! We got to see Sister Harris on our tradeoff!

With Sister Harris

My first tradeoff was with Sister Gabbitas, a new missionary who is being trained by Sister Driggs. So in theory training wise and mission jargon wise, she is my great-granddaughter (Tryon-Kilpack-Driggs-Gabbitas). In other words, I am officially an old missionary. Sister Gabbitas and I saw so many miracles! We talked with everyone, even in gas stations, and had a tender experience. We had just filled up our car and talked to a couple people, and gotten back into our car, when we saw a man by his car behind us. We went to talk to him, and ended up talking to him and his wife for 30 minutes. We gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and they asked us to sign our names in it. It was such a tender experience. We also had a man accept baptism and he chose October 13th as the date that he wanted to know this was true by. It was crazy!

Me and Sister Gabbitas. Giant life x2

I also went on a tradeoff with another STL, Sister Hardy. It was so much fun! We went to serve in St. John’s River and it was great! We did some finding.

Me and Sister Hardy. Giant life… This is accurate of our love for each other.

While in Saint John’s River, I got to see the Wolffords and invite them to do my birthday challenge! So they are going to write their testimony on a copy of the Book of Mormon and share it with someone! I would love for y’all to join us in this!

When you can find your family anywhere…

And we got to have dinner with Sister Tullis and her family! It was so fun and crazy. I love them so much!

Dinner with Sarah Tullis and her family at PDQ’s

Reunited with Sister Tullis (Sarah)

We got to spend time with our favorite person, Sister Lee at MLC!

I love all of you so much! I am thankful for these next few weeks and am so excited for all of you to see the blessings of missionary work in your own lives! Please remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you!

This week has been so crazy and fun! Sister Bryans and I finally got all of our pictures exchanged, so there will be quite a few pictures of her and me together this email, just so I have them all sent home for your viewing.

Our district before this week’s transfer

We got a Hawaiian ice on a hot day last week…

And then were drenched approximately twenty minutes later… Florida weather is crazy and I love it.

I liked this advice, though I am not sure how effective it was (:

Before a District Meeting with Sister Bryans

A blurry picture of us with our Bishop and his family #longgarms #whoneedsaselfiestick

This week Sister Pereira and I became companions! I already love her. Though we differ in height I feel I have a lot to measure up to. She is so sweet and is so focused and ready and willing to work.

Sister Pereira and me on Transfer Day. Me and my new companion, Sister Pereira! I have not felt like this much of a giant in such a long time. Like, since I was companions with Sister Beach when I went to Palatka.

I look slightly less like a giant in this picture.

This week we did a lot of prep work for this upcoming week and transfer. We have seven trade-offs planned for the next four weeks, and could not be more excited.

We also met several new people who seem quite promising that we will be visiting this week. I am excited to share all the miracles we see next week! But as a small preview I will share a miracle from yesterday: We were sitting in Relief Society, and this woman stood up in the beginning introduce herself. She is not a member, and has been investigate the church on her own for some time now. She and her husband, who is a member, just moved into our ward. Though she does not want us to teach her quite yet, she did sign up to feed us on the dinner calendar and said that she will take that “next step” eventually. So we were excited about that! Miracles! Also, missionary note, y’all should invite your friends to come to church with you! It is a wonderful experience, and the Spirit is always so strong! I can promise that if anything, they will feel of your love when you invite them to share something that is so special to you.

Cutting up fruit at our ward mission leaders house in preparation for a family history event. I love Live Photos.

This week I have received several questions from people asking what to send me for my birthday. In all honesty, I will be heading home approximately two weeks after my mission, so foods that I like or gifts and such would be packed up very quickly. If you do wish to send me such items, I would request that you send them to my home address or give them to me in person when I return home.

We keep this sign on our door in case people send packages. We got home one day and found that note scribbled on it instead of a letter from the office. It was funny.

BUT I do have a birthday request, if y’all are up to it. Recently Sister Bryans and I felt very strongly that we should share the gospel with people we love back home. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to share the gospel with someone you love. Perhaps you will send a specific person a gospel video or quote from a prophet. Perhaps you will invite them to attend church with you, or to come to mutual or institute with you.

What I have chosen to do is to write my testimony in a copy of the Book of Mormon and to send it to someone that I love dearly. I won’t lie, when I felt prompted to do that, I was fearful and afraid. I mean, I love this person a lot, won’t they be offended? But I know through prayer and through the feelings of the Spirit that it will be okay.

So that is my challenge: Share the gospel with someone you love. Make it a prayerful thing. If you are up to it, share a copy of the Book of Mormon with someone you know. It could even be someone you barely know but feel prompted to share it with. And then let me know how it goes. I think that would be the best birthday present I could get.🎁🎉🎁 (Did the emojis work? Did they draw your eye over to this paragraph? Perfect, please read it.)

Elder McMullin told me that his mom reads my blog. We saw this last night and I had to take a picture for her.

All right. Do y’all want to hear my favorite story from this week? This week Sister Pereira and I were heroes. We were driving to try a referral, and as we were driving we recognized that a less active member lived at that home. We felt like we should go and see if we could meet them. So we parked a bit past it and started walking down the sidewalk to the trailer. As we were walking, we saw a vulture. We’re talking a “Food glorious food” vulture from Ice Age. Huge. We were afraid it would attack us, but as we walked by it flew away into a nearby tree. We looked over to where it had been lurking just seconds before, and saw an armadillo. Now, the only armadillos I have seen on my mission have been not living, okay? BUT NO! This little guy was flipped onto his back, and you could see him breathing like crazy. We weren’t sure if he was dying or if he had just been flipped over. Well, we couldn’t touch him with our hands (germs), but we couldn’t leave him exposed with this vulture lurking! So we looked, and found an old wooden plank leaning against a fence. It was covered in moss, so we assumed it was not going to be used. And (since Sister Pereira was more leery of getting near it) I used the board to gently flip him onto his stomach. It looked like his shell had been scraped, maybe by a car or bike or something. But he started scuttling around and we were so excited. And the vulture started flying away! So we went on our merry way, tried the person, they weren’t home, and neither were their neighbors. Walking back to our car, we saw the same armadillo (or who knows, maybe it was one of his friends) flipped onto his back. We decided we would flip him again. We are not sure if he ended up flipping over again after we left, but we felt good about it.

So the moral of the story is, always help. Sometimes people make the same mistake over and over again. And we repent and fix it and then make the same mistake. Thankfully, Jesus Christ is infinitely patient and full of love. He has done everything in His power (which by the way, is infinite) to enable us to “flip over” and repent. This power is not only over our sins but over our shortcomings, our struggles, our fears and feelings. If we allow Him, He can heal us and make us even stronger. The only catch is hat He will not force us to be happy, clean, or free from our mistakes. We have to let him in. So if you feel like you have flipped over for the first, third, or thousandth time, PLEASE be willing to give Him a shot. I promise He will not let you down if you are willing.

I love all of you so much. I wish I could just airdrop it out to all of you and you would just magically understand and feel how much I love you. Please, if you ever get ANYTHING from anything I have ever written or said to you, PLEASE remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you.

This week has been amazing! The above title is accurate. We have been working hard to find and it has been pretty successful! We have been busy and I love it! This week I felt as though I was given ample experiences in which I felt truly needed here. A new family moved into our ward recently and we met them this week. I found out that they were found and baptized by my trainer, Sister Dixon! That was a tender mercy for me, especially because they told us they trusted us immediately.

We went on a tradeoff with the Whitehouse Sisters this week! Sister Stepherson came to serve in Normandy with me! We had a ton of fun!

We did District Service in the pouring rain. Sister Stepherson and I took a tradeoff selfie when we were a bit more dry. Don’t worry, we went home and got warm before heading out again. We will not get pneumonia…

This week it rained so much! We actually ended up knocking in the rain for an hour and it was so much fun! We both have rain boots and jackets so we stayed fairly dry! People sure were shocked to see two beaming Sister Missionaries at their door, rain pouring down behind and swirling in the streets. It was a blast and though we did not find any new investigators that night, we were blessed later in the week with some.

We took a raincoat selfie. This was only after a couple of minutes of raining, so we still looked cute.

Other highlights in his week include Stake Conference, in which I was able to see so many members whom I love! I am finally reaching that point in my mission where I know lots of members and I just love it! It helps to have served in this Stake for at least ten months over a course of almost two years.

We got a sandwich at this mildly questionable sandwich shop. But don’t worry, we paid with cash (:

Another highlight of this week was interviews with our mission president, President Lee! We love him so much, and he warms our hearts immensely.

Normandy District during interviews

I am so thankful for this chance I have to serve right now! I know my time is drawing a bit shorter than before, but I will always be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who is patient and who gives us so many chances.